David Wahl on Creativity and Marketing

Allen Ginsberg’s mind writing slogans

In MInd Writing Slogans, Allen Ginsberg selected and arranged a series of quotes and presented them as a guide to perception and creation. They are posted all over the internet, so I won’t re-post all of them, but the first series on primary perception (22 out of 84) really struck a chord with me today. The two that keep pinging around in my head are “notice what you notice” and “if we don’t show anyone, we’re free to write anything.”

“One perception must immediately and directly lead to a further perception.” — Charles Olson, “Projective Verse”

“My writing is a picture of the mind moving.” — Philip Whalen

Surprise Mind — Allen Ginsberg

“The old pond, a frog jumps in, Kerplunk!” — Basho

“Magic is the total delight (appreciation) of chance.” — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche

“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.” –– Walt Whitman

“…What quality went to form a man of achievement, especially in literature? … Negative capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.” — John Keats

“Form is never more than an extension ofcontent. — Robert Creeley to Charles Olson

“Form follows function.” — Frank Lloyd Wright*

Ordinary Mind includes eternal perceptions. — A. G.

“Nothing is better for being Eternal

Nor so white as the white that dies of a day.” — Louis Zukofsky

Notice what you notice. — A. G.

Catch yourself thinking. — A. G.

Observe what’s vivid. — A. G.

Vividness is self-selecting. — A. G.

“Spots of Time” — William Wordsworth

If we don’t show anyone we’re free to write anything. –– A. G.

“My mind is open to itself.” — Gelek Rinpoche

“Each on his bed spoke to himself alone, making no sound.” — Charles Reznikoff